CSI: Erith.

 

What? I hear you ask. How come there is another portion to the Maggot Sandwich, so close behind the last one? Well, as per the ancient Chinese curse, I think I am living in interesting times.

I was suddenly awoken at 1.30am this morning, by a neighbour phoning to say there were burglars at the bottom of my garden, and on the roof of Vinton Metals - the local non ferrous metal recycling facility located behind my house. He came round and we both investigated; initially I could see or hear nothing, so I went back indoors to fetch a decent torch. Once I got it switched on, around 5 - 6 hooded blokes came scrambling over the fence from the recycling yard, like cockroaches in a darkened kitchen when the light comes on. We called the Police and to their credit they were on the scene in no more than 3-4 minutes, mob handed - 3 vans, 2 cars and a dog unit, and CID were there about ten minutes later. They blocked off the main access routes to the Frobisher Road Estate and started a search for the miscreants.

After about an hour and a half of searching (the Frobisher housing estate opposite my place is full of rat runs, and the thieving scumbags had gone to ground in their home territory) it became clear that the Met were not going to catch anyone red - handed. After taking a statement from me, and filling in what seemed like endless forms, the Police eventually left my house at just before 4.30am. Two abandoned wheelie bins full of stolen copper were dragged by the police into my back garden and covered over to await the Forensic science team (see the photo at the top of this entry - click for a larger view), who turned up at around 10 this morning. They spent quite a while fingerprinting the wheelie bins, and seemed pretty happy with the results on one bin in particular.



It turns out that the burglars had broken through the roof of the factory and lowered themselves inside. Apparently the copper in the photo above has a scrap value of around £1500, due to its' high purity. A chap from Vinton Metals came around with a fork lift truck to collect it at lunchtime. At least now it is safely back where it belongs; it definitely sounds like metal recycling is the business to be in right now.